


Where you finish isn't where you start

by WeekendWriter



Category: Pacific Rim (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Becket Family Feels, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Gen, Holidays, Hong Kong Shatterdome, M/M, Shatterdome Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-02
Updated: 2018-01-02
Packaged: 2019-02-26 15:53:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13239054
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WeekendWriter/pseuds/WeekendWriter
Summary: A year could change a lot, Yancy realized. It was easy to dwell on the years of the K-War or to dwell on all that had happened to them, but maybe it was time to dwell on the future.





	Where you finish isn't where you start

**Author's Note:**

  * For [estei](https://archiveofourown.org/users/estei/gifts).



> This is my gift to the wonderful estei for a Holiday Fic Swap! I really hope you enjoy this and that I managed to capture what you wanted with your prompt. Happy Holidays! <3

January 2026 barreled into their lives like one of the many locomotives they’d been hopping and Yancy was almost grateful to breathe in the Hong Kong air as they stepped off the plane. Raleigh grinned at him from the tarmac; somehow, after their time with the PPDC and after the crushing anxiety of figuring out what to do after they got out, the kid still managed to smile in the face of anything. Yancy gripped the back of Raleigh’s neck playfully and shook him like the puppy he was. Travel had been good to them: major monuments in the United States followed by France, Germany, Belgium and Sweden and countless others. It could never make up for what happened to them (Yancy still woke most nights with terror coursing through his veins and Knifehead’s shrieks in his ears) but it was a good start. Leisure time and beautiful sights and grateful travelers led them to this point. 

And now they were back. Yancy caught his luggage as it was tossed to him from the plane and turned his gaze on the Shatterdome. 

Or, retired Shatterdome, more like it. The PPDC retained control over the building after the war, but it had been essentially decommissioned and designated as a hub to oversee PPDC paperwork and to focus on rebuilding the city. At least, that’s what Yancy understood from his brief correspondence with Mako immediately following the war. To be honest, neither of the Beckets kept up with their fellow rangers and officers after the closing of the Breach. The days after Operation Pitfall had been a hectic mess; people hightailed it out of the ‘Dome faster than anyone could say ‘paperwork’ – though believe him, there had been plenty of that to be done. 

That’s why this week was so important. Yancy had been surprised to receive a postcard from Mako; they were the ones traveling, after all, not her. It was more of an invitation asking the two of them to return to Hong Kong to celebrate the first anniversary of the end of the war. There had been argument between the two brothers, reasons for and against going, but ultimately the guilt at not maintaining relationships with their fellow PPDC personnel won out, and here they were. 

The two of them were just waltzing into the old Jaeger bay when Yancy could sense it. Years later, and Yancy was still catching emotions from Raleigh over the ghost drift. Yancy could feel a spike in his brother’s excitement and sure enough – he saw her walking over toward them. 

Mako Mori was an incredible force to be reckoned with, and she still looked it as she strode toward them on black pumps, neatly dressed for work. The blue streak in her hair looked sharper than ever. She reached them and bowed slightly, the corners of her mouth turning up as the both of them returned the gesture. Of course, after the bow Raleigh all but launched himself forward and engulfed the small woman in his best bear hug. That earned the kid a much bigger grin. 

She turned to Yancy next, and he could almost feel it – the small hesitation lurking somewhere in the ghost drift that she transmitted to Raleigh. Yancy understood it; Mako had been walking on eggshells around him since day one, and he couldn’t say he blamed her. Taking over as Raleigh’s drift partner when Yancy had been deemed unfit to pilot was awkward. He’d tried to tell her that there was nothing to worry about. It had, at first, stung like salt in a wound to watch his brother pilot with someone else, but Yancy would never hold that against the Mako. The war had necessitated the bond between them, and Yancy had been the first to admit that there was no way he could ever step in a Jaeger again, not until they’d been outfitted with software that could respond more in kind to his prosthetic. He pulled Mako into a hug that he hoped he put enough feeling into. One of his biggest regrets from the war was not putting her doubts and uncertainty about their relationship to rest; maybe this was his chance to make her understand that there had never been any hard feelings. 

“Good to see you again, Mako,” he muttered into her hair. When she pulled back she was smiling at him, wider than he remembered seeing her smile at him before, so that was a start at least. 

“Yeah, thanks for organizing all this!” Raleigh added. The kid was practically bouncing on the balls of his feet. 

“Of course.” Mako bowed slightly again. “We all need to remember what we have been through together. And what better way than a holiday.”

That was the plan for the week. To no one’s surprise, very few people celebrated the holidays of the year after the war. The list of reasons for that was endless; too many crowds, too many noises, too many lost souls who would be absent from the table. This celebration would be honoring those they had lost by tackling all the big holidays at once to make up for the rest of the year. Thanksgiving dinner paired with holiday gift giving, and topping off the night with a countdown clock ringing in January 12, the ‘non-official official’ PPDC New Year Day. 

As people arrived and filed into the base, Yancy was wrestled into bear hugs by people he had almost forgotten, even after years with them. Old officer friends arrived with their families and then the rangers began to arrive. Raleigh yelled and threw himself across the bay at the arrival of the Wei Tang brothers and soon found himself under a pile of headlocks and noogies. Aleksis Kandinovsky, looking somehow taller and more imposing than ever, lifted Yancy effortlessly in a bone-crushing hug that practically had Raleigh doubled over with laughter until the massive Russian turned on him. Sasha chided them like the children they were. Raleigh returned to Yancy’s side, a sheepish grin plastered over his face. 

They all looked good, Yancy realized. That grin was Yancy’s favorite thing in the world to see, but he also noticed it reflected on the faces of their adopted family around them and he wondered for the first time that year how he’d gone this long without seeing any of them. The thought was sobering. 

Mako waved the other rangers to their rooms and returned to them, clipboard in hand. “You two will be staying in your old bunk.” 

“Oh, no way! Isn’t that great, Yance?” Raleigh elbowed him pointedly. Despite the jab to his ribs, the kid’s enthusiasm was infectious. Yancy elbowed him back and prepared for a renewed assault from the brat when a bark grabbed the attention of the three of them. 

A stout bulldog was giving his best attempt at a run barreling straight toward Mako, and Yancy was suddenly struck by a strong sense of deja-vu. Mako dropped her clipboard in favor of greeting the dog with enthusiastic rubs and received kisses in kind. 

“Max!” Yancy looked up again and sure enough, there he was: Chuck Hansen. Herc was already here as he stepped in as Stacker’s replacement after Operation Pitfall, so the kid was arriving alone this time. He paused upon seeing them for only a second before he pushed on to follow Max. Yancy braced himself and could practically feel Raleigh bristling beside him. To everyone’s surprise, Chuck stopped just short of them and flashed an uncertain grin. “Uh, hi.”

Raleigh exchanged a quick glance with Yancy. Thankfully, Mako had the tact to reply, “Hello, Chuck. Glad you could make it. Your bunk will be your old bunk, down the hall from us.”

“Right, that’s… bonzer.” Chuck shuffled his feet – was that a sign of nerves? – and he turned, beckoning for Max as he did. “See you mates soon, I hope.”

The second he was out of earshot, Raleigh turned to him. Yancy could feel the confusion, guilt, and weirdly enough _longing_ seeping over the ghost drift. “Alright that was weird.”

“That was absolutely weird.”

Mako rolled her eyes at them, so Yancy wagged his eyebrows at her and was rewarded with a small giggle. That was – that was more interaction than he was used to receiving from her. Maybe he really had a chance at improving their relationship after all this time. 

 

 

Raleigh had been pummeling the end of his bed with his feet for the past half hour, a thoughtful habit he’d picked up during the nights they sat up waiting to hear news of their fellow rangers. Yancy sighed and dropped the towel he was running over his hair. 

“Alright, kid, what’s up?” 

The younger Becket’s head shot up out of the bottom bunk. “What? Nothing’s up.”

“Right,” Yancy snorted. “That voice crack agrees with you.” 

“It’s just…” Raleigh sighed and pulled his legs over the edge of the bed to stop himself from tapping. “He looked good.” 

Yancy made a face at him in the sink mirror. “Who, the brat?” 

Raleigh rolled his eyes. “Yes, Chuck. I can’t even remember what we fought about. After Pitfall, it just seems so stupid. I mean, there was a war going on and all we could focus on was our own egos.” 

“Yeah, I told you that then, kiddo.”

“Oh, an I-told-you-so. I was hoping.”

“Hey.” Yancy caught him by the arm as he passed. “You know I didn’t mean it like that. I just want you to be happy, Raleigh. We’ve been gone a year, so has he, so has everyone else. People change. Maybe all you need is to give him a chance for him to show you that. Otherwise, I mean, who knows – it might be another year before you see him again.”

Raleigh nodded slowly, and Yancy recognized that old fire, that passionate idealism behind his eyes. When he set his mind to it, the kid was one of the most incredibly driven people he’d ever met. 

And Chuck better realize that, or he’d learn that he wouldn’t get away as easily from a fight with Yancy.

“Look, Yance…” Raleigh put his hand over Yancy’s own. “This year has been beyond any expectations I could have had. Hell, none of us expected to make it out of Pitfall alive, let alone expect to take the year off. I owe you everything for those travels, and I can’t imagine my life without you in it. But I think it’s time to come back. Those people out there today, they can be around for us, too. It doesn’t always have to be you taking care of me; you deserve people that are gonna take care of you.” 

Yancy pulled his brother into a hug, grateful that Raleigh was able to put into words what he had been feeling earlier today. He should have known; the kid’s always been in his head. “Thanks, Rals. I was thinking the same thing today, too. We needed to heal, but… I think we forgot we have other family out here.” 

“Yeah.” Raleigh pulled back and pseudo-punched Yancy in the arm. “Alright, enough sappy shit.” 

“Right. You have a hot-head to get after. And I swear, if he picks another fight with you–”

“–I’ll kick his ass again,” Raleigh interrupted as he strode toward the door. 

“That’s my boy,” Yancy called after him. 

A year could change a lot, he realized. It was easy to dwell on the years of the K-War or to dwell on all that had happened to them, but maybe it was time to dwell on the future. Yancy thought of that over Mako’s planned dinner as he watched Raleigh and Chuck fawn over each other with flirtation poorly disguised under sarcasm, watched Sasha and Aleksis feeding each other with their own forks in their own bubble, watched officers cooing over Tendo and his wife’s newborn while the couple looked proudly on. He finally made eye contact with the woman responsible for all of this seated across the table from him, her small smile mirroring his own as she brushed that blue stripe out of her face. There was a wonderful future to be had, and thanks to her, they all had the reminder they needed that the future didn’t have to be faced alone.


End file.
